Less than 24 hours after collecting just over a pound of Blackberries from the allotment, we now have 3 more jars of yummy jam. When we got home we "acquired" some apples from our neighbours tree, and hey presto - jam! Our store cupboard is looking good, plenty of supplies. Can't wait for the cold mornings in the depth of winter, and being able to spread summer fruit jam on thick buttered toast. The jars - by the way - are from Colorlites.
Isn't it great being able to just nip up to the plot and grab a handful of veg for dinner! It's a great feeling, it's like this massive store cupboard we can go to just when we need to ! Wifey is cooking up a treat tonight, and my tum is rumbling in anticipation! The runners are cropping very well this year, whilst the french beans seem to be struggling just a little. Next year we are planning to prepare the ground better, with the addition of plenty of horse manure, which we we are starting to stockpile at the plot.
On the way out the gate from the allotment, we couldn't resist stopping to pick these Blackberries that were growing wild in the hedgerow. Now then, are we thinking jam, or maybe a crumble? Time to lean over the fence at home and scrump some apples!
Welcome back to our allotment retreat, where today we were greeted by the sight of our newly transplanted Rhubarb (v.Victoria) plant. As you can clearly see, it's loving it's new home, and sending up new shoots all the time. It's really encouraging to see such good growth, and together with the 2 crowns at home, should mean bumper harvests for the next few years. I know it takes up a lot of space on the plot, but in my opinion its a good sacrifice. This year we have experimented a bit with it - Rhubarb & Ginger jam etc, and then there's the possibility of wine too!
Today we harvested yet more veg. We have been getting a bag full every now and again! The spuds (v.Nadine) are the 2nd earlies, and we plan to leave them in the ground until we need them. This will continue unless we get a bout of wet weather, which may lead to slug damage. We are also now getting a good crop of Runner Beans(v.Scarlet Emperor), as well as the Purple Podded Climbing French beans. The latter are causing quite a stir at the plot - there's a well trodden path to our plot from other plotholders, keen to investigate this "new" crop! The Climbing French beans are also just starting to crop. Lovely!
We have more Marrows on the way too. This specimen now about 8" long and 4" diameter, and there's about 4 more starting off on the same plant! Yummy. In line with the experimenting(above) we are now thinking of Marrow Preserve. That's making my mouth water just thinking about it!
The second marrow plant next the the one above, is adorned with more large flowers, a beautiful sight and more promise of things to come. This has been our first year growing marrows - and even then its by accident - as the plants we purchased as "Courgette" were indeed Marrow! Oh well, we're not complaining!
The Butternut Squashes (v.Waltham Cross) that we planted atop our compost heap are also growing really well. This pic shows the 1st fruit starting to form, and there's plenty more buds too. It's all quite exciting, as we patiently wait to see what will / won't grow!
The plant's that were donated by Stephen at Victoriana Nurseries, are also growing on well. Several of the plants are producing fruit, all about the size of tennis balls at the moment. Considering how late these were planted, they are doing really well. There's also a couple of Courgette (Zucchini) plants which have fruit on them, and a sole Cantaloupe Melon plant. The latter is adorned with flowers but no fruit at the moment.
We have recently found a source of free manure, which we have started transporting to the allotment. At the moment we are spreading it over the beds that contained our second early spuds. Over the next few months we will get as much as we can and use it to improve our soil structure. Rather than "digging" it in, we plan to just mulch the surface with it, and let the worms do the work! The manure is all fairly well rotted down already, it doesn't even smell much! Just wish I had a towbar and a trailer!
Welcome back to our allotment retreat. Two updates in one day - Crikey!As detailed earlier , I set off this morning to forage for some more free fruit. Armed with a couple of cloth bags, i never imagined that i would collect what is probably 20 pounds of yellows, And 20 pounds of reds! The bag pictured here is a "Tesco Bag for Life" , and its about 6" deep with fruit! Probably about an hours worth of picking. There were a lot of fellow foragers there today, one guy in his late seventies telling me he's been collecting this fruit there for more than 20 years!
This bag(Iceland version) is also about 6" deep with fruit. There was a greater demand for these, and I had to jostle with others to get a good spot. I found one after a short break, and collected this haul in about 30 minutes. The branches were literally overloaded with fruit. After nipping in to town to buy sugar, and a couple of other treats for wifey, we headed home to the stove. Thats the royal "we" of course. Jen made a 5lb batch from the yellow plums first, as these are the most ripe. The aroma was sheer bliss as they boiled on the stove, and the finished jam was a lovely golden yellow in colour.
Wilkinson's have also started their seed sale, and we picked up all these packs at half price. These will be stored away for next years planting, the plan of which is forming in our minds !
Welcome back to our allotment retreat blog. Yesterday we popped out for a walk with the sole intention of finding & picking some Blackberries, with a view to making a nice pudding for dinner today. In true Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstal tradition, we stumbled upon more than we had bargained for. Having already found one site full of Cherry Plum tree's, we hardly expected to find even more, but were pleasantly surprised to find about a dozen tree's within a stone's throw (no pun intended) from our front door! All the tree's are heavily laden with delicious small fruits, and there are approx 3 varieties to choose from. The tree's are on "Common" land which in my opinion makes them ideal for picking. There was evidence that other people have been doing the same, and we intend to gather some more today. As for recipe's, a quick internet search revealed more ideas than you can poke a stick at. All we need to do now, is accumulate a load of empty jam jars! Maybe an ad in a local shop window will suffice ?
Welcome back to our allotment retreat, where we are enjoying the fruits of our labour once again! After a quick visit to the plot today we came away with this bumper harvest. We cant lay claim to the courgettes - they were a gift from a fellow plotholder - he grew so many he's been eating them every day for weeks! The marrow is our second this year and the plants are still flourishing. We picked a good handful of Runner Beans, French Beans and Purple podded french beans. Only a couple of Pea pods - but they are soooo tasty ! Finally we dug the first of our Second Earlies(v.Nadine). We'll be conjuring up some lovely home grown veg to go with our Hake Fillets for tea! Yum.
Our Butternut Squash plants are also going well. No sign of any fruits yet, but buds galore on the 4 plants that are planted atop our compost heap. The flower in this pic looks to have a fruit developing underneath, all we need now is some sunny weather to help it grow on a bit.
This one appears to be Zucchini - you can just see the yellow fruit starting to form.
Not sure what this one is either, but something is growing !! Unfortunately, the majority of the plants that Stephen gave us were without labels, so we'll just have to wait and see. We can't thank Victoriana Nurseries enough, and can't find enough superlatives to describe their nursery. Maybe we can show how grateful we are by buying a bit more from them next year!
Our newly located Rhubarb crown is going great guns too, obviously liking it's new growing position. Won't be enough growth to harvest this year, but we're hoping for bumper harvests in years to come.
Our first attempt at growing Borlotti Beans is proving to be a great success. Faced as we were today with a multitude of beans, we need to read up a bit before we harvest them. The plan was to grow them for drying, with a view to using the dried beans in winter stews and casseroles, but we are now thinking they could be picked to eat as "runners" - maybe one of our readers can advise us on this ?
On the way back from the plot, we stopped off at a newly discovered site (being vague on purpose!) and picked approx 10 pounds of these lovely Cherry Plums. As I sit here typing, wifey is busy preparing the first 5lb batch of jam - yummy yum. We already have about 4 jars in the larder from a previous picking a couple of weeks ago. If you could smell the fruit now as it gently boils on the stove . . . . oh, you can't ! Oh well!!
Welcome back to Reads Allotment Retreat, where we've had a lovely and somewhat busy week. We had a "free" day this week and decided to visit Victoriana Nurseries in Challock,Nr Faversham, Kent. We've only visited once before, but when you see the entrance to the place, you just know you want to get inside! There's no mass of commercial adverts and bustling car parks to greet you, just the awe inspiring polytunnels and the somewhat quaint entrance. Once inside, drawing a deep breath of air tells you right away you're in a great place. The smell of the soil is lovely, as is the serene atmosphere within. We inquired as to whether the proprietor Stephen was available, and were delighted when he downed tools (well almost - secateurs in hand) to come and say hello. Even more delighted that he remembered us! The main purpose of visiting was to find some inspirational advice for what to plant next at the allotment, as the vacant spud beds were dying to be filled with plants. Stephen suggested a few things to try, like a Mustard "Green manure" as well as a couple of other ideas, but already I was thinking "more crops" for this season! On the way in we had passed some rather bedraggled squash / courgette / melon plants which were already lodged in the back of my mind. I mentioned these to Stephen, and he replied "take what you want, they're going in the bin later!". I couldn't believe my luck. Maybe they won't amount to much, but as fellow growers will tell you - it's heartbreaking to throw plants away. Victoriana Nursery recently took part in the BBC Gardeners World Live Show where they picked up a RHS Silver Medal - well done to all, especially to Stephen's daughter Milly (aged 3) who also picked up a Silver - the youngest ever recipient. Well done Milly!
Having bought our goodies from the nursery, we headed back to the car. This pic shows the driveway back to the main road. It really is a lovely place, we just felt like we wanted to stay, pull on some gloves and do a spot of weeding. It is definitely worth a visit if you can spare the time. It seems that family run businesses like this are a thing of the past, but Victoriana Nurseries is definitely a thing of the future, and we wish Stephen and his family all the best.
Having left the nursery, we set off to find a place to eat our picnic. After driving around for ten minutes, we stumbled across the beautiful vista literally just off the main road. Not wanting to impose too much, we pulled the car in off the road and parked up. The picnic was yummy - thanks Jen! I couldn't resist a few pictures after our lunch - this really is the Garden of England - we love it. We could live there!!! Where's that lottery ticket?
Next day we were straight up to the plot to plant up our haul. The bed pictured was previously home to our First Early spuds which produced a reasonably good crop. The ground has since been re dug, and 2 bags of spent hops added to improve the soil structure. The plants from Victoriana Nurseries were planted approx 3' apart, over a mound of grass clipping and some general purpose compost.(We used Wickes - 2 bags for £6.00). The plants were well watered in, and now we can sit back and wait. As I said to Stephen, they've got 2 chances! We also bought a pack of Marrow seeds to sow, as we are so pleased with our current marrow plants, we want to try some more. It's a small gamble, but if the weather holds out, we may get more crops?
Welcome back to our allotment retreat. Just for a change we're bringing you pictures taken at the plot - Today! Check the pic from 5 days ago in our previous posting - I'm simply amazed at how quick this Marrow is growing. By way of a thank you, I not only watered it today, but gave it a good feed too. I think it deserves it, don't you ?
And here's the plant just 3 feet away, in the same bed. Obviously it doesn't want to be outdone and wants some of the attention too! These 2 plants were "shop" brought in Sunny Hunny a few weeks back, and considering how cheap they were, and the fact that they were a tad bedraggled, tells us we are doing something right. This second plant was planted over layers of garden compost/ grass clippings, and seems to be thriving on it.
After the many disasters of trying to raise Courgette plants at home this year (can't use slug pellets due to 2 year old Ruby might take a shine to them), we decided to plant this late developing Yellow Zucchini at the plot. It has found a new home in the bed that was home to our first earlies. Lets hope the recently introduced "spent hops" give the ground the nutrients it needs to support this new addition. Certainly smells nice !!!
The runners (all varieties) are going great guns at the moment - reaching as they do up and beyond the supports provided. When you stand next to them, they look just great, but it's not so easy to get a good picture of them, hence this shot taken looking underneath and through the foliage. I think it looks ok. Still not enough fully developed pods to get a plate full yet, so they have been left and will hopefully be more productive in a few days time.
We're really pleased with the Butternut squash plants, this is the strongest of the four on the top of the compost bin, but the other 3 plants are also doing well too. Squash has been a fairly recent addition to our kitchen, and we're hoping for a good harvest here too. There's so many delicious recipe's for squash, that we need as many as possible. I sowed quite a few varieties, but the ones doing best in this environment are the Waltham Cross variety.
The recently moved Rhubarb is growing well. It seems to send up new shoots every time I make an appearance. We are somewhat surprised by the growth, not withstanding the fact that it has been moved mid season. Great expectations here!
Welcome back to our allotment retreat. Isn't July a lovely time of the year - everything is starting to look great, the hours/days/weeks of care on the plot are reaching fruition and it's time to enjoy the fruits of your labour. These runner beans(v.Scarlet Emperor) made a lovely accompaniment to dinner last thursday evening, and were joined by a handful of peas(v.Victorian Colossal) as well as some First early spuds(v.Maris Peer). The taste alone makes it all worthwhile, not forgetting of course the sheer joy of harvesting your own food!
The rest of the climbers are still putting on great growth, and are nearly all at the stage where the tops need to be pinched out. While Huw was here he suggested nipping the tops out much sooner, but I prefer to let them grow on till they nearly reach the top of the canes, and then trim the tops. I find you get a greater yield by letting the plants establish fully. We have quite a few varieties growing here, and each plot visit gives us more hope of big crops. There's plenty of blackfly present - a bain for all the allotment holders, but the plants are strong and coping well.
As detailed previously, our recently moved Rhubarb crown(v.Victoria) is putting on some good growth, seems like it likes it's new home! Cant wait till next year when we get to harvest from 3 different crowns! Wifey is currently planning a batch of Rhubarb & Ginger jam, if we can accumulate enough Rhubarb before we stop harvesting it the end of this month.
Here's one of our Marrow plants which is looking good. I think the variety is "GreenBush", but having lost the tag, it's hard to say for sure! The second plant that was planted on layers of compost/grass clippings is also doing well. We are hopeful of a good harvest here, as all the courgette plants at Reads Retreat have succumbed to the dreaded slugs, but there seems to be a lack of them at the lottie - we're not complaining. I have one more Courgette plant to go out, and may plant it at the plot?
The Butternut Squash(v.Waltham Cross) that are planted atop the compost bin are also starting to put on good growth. Quite pleasing really as this growing site was a bit of an experiment! Not sure if the heap is warm/damp enough for growing these - time will tell though.
Posts
All Comments
